American city Madison approves Tibetan as new official minority language

[Saturday, March 03, 2018 18:10]

By Tenzin Dharpo

Representatives of the Wisconsin Tibetan Association and supporters at the Common Council meeting in Madison city, Wisconsin on Feb. 27, 2018.

DHARAMSHALA, Mar. 3: The city of Madison in the state of Wisconsin, Unites States, has officially approved the Tibetan language as one of the new minority languages, in a historic and unprecedented development on Tuesday.

The city’s ‘Common Council’ held a meeting on February 27th, with regard to the approval of compressive language access plan by the City of Madison where representatives of the Tibetan community presented cases on the “importance as well as the need to have the Tibetan language recognized due to the increase in its usage in this city”.

“We are very happy to announce here that the Common Council has unanimously adopted Tibetan being one of the official minority languages! This has been a big achievement to the community,” the Wisconsin Tibetan Association announced on their Facebook page.

The capital city of the State, Madison city, has a long history with the Tibetan immigrant community dating back a few decades. On Thursday (March 1), the Tibetan community commemorated the 25th anniversary of the US-Tibetan Resettlement Project. The Dane County Board passed a resolution recognizing the Wisconsin Tibetan Association and the Dane County Tibetan community. There is a sizable Tibetan community in the city of Madison which is the second-most-populous municipality in Wisconsin state.

Tsetan Dolkar, a Tibetan mother of two who has lived in the city for almost 20 years, told Phayul that it is a matter of great pride not just for the Tibetans in Madison but all over, that the Tibetan language which is the only language that can explain the works of the Nalanda masters and teachings of the Buddha has been adopted as an official minority language. “I feel proud that the city which became my home under the resettlement policy has adopted our language among minority languages. I sincerely thank the people from our community who have worked so hard in achieving this and also the city council has given its support.”